Virtually all professional service industries are today regulated by professional licensing authorities or governing bodies. For example, a lawyer may only practice law in a jurisdiction if the local bar has licensed that lawyer. Similarly, accountants, engineers, medical doctors, dentists, stock brokers, real estate agents, and a plethora of other professionals must remain in good standing with their respective professional organizations in order to be able to engage in the practice of their profession. When a professional is no longer in good standing with his or her professional organization or governing body, there is frequently no easy way for a client or other party relying on the transaction, advice or service provided by the professional to know if the professional in question is no longer licensed. Conventionally, a formal inquiry to the professional's licensing body must be made to ascertain that the professional is in good standing. This takes effort and time and is thus in practice frequently not done. The current state of affairs thus leaves the public exposed to the possibility that the professional is acting without a valid license from the regulatory body. This is particularly important for clients who rely on professionals such as lawyers or accountants who are involved in electronic transactions on behalf of their clients. Current technologies do not enable the status of a member of an organization to be verified in real-time or approximately in real-time to ensure that the professional about to act in the electronic transaction is in fact in good standing and thus has legal capacity to act in the electronic transaction.
A solution to the foregoing technical problem would be highly desirable. Such a solution is disclosed in the present specification and the appended drawings.
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.